


Dimensions under the Sun

by Sorcerors_violet



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:27:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24275836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sorcerors_violet/pseuds/Sorcerors_violet
Summary: The first Doctor and Susan arrive on a world where a mysterious artefact appears to be causing time distortions - and a cynical politician is attempting to take advantage of it.
Collections: Doctor Who Fanfics





	1. Chapter One

An adventure featuring the first Doctor and Susan. It is set before An Unearthly Child – so the TARDIS chameleon circuit still works!

Chapter One

“Aliens! Extraterrestials!” A man in military style uniform sat behind a desk and almost spat out the words. “It’s all nonsense.”

“Then how do you explain...?” his compatriot asked. He was a younger man, also in military attire. 

“The Pyramid? I’m not sure yet. But of one thing I’m certain, it has nothing to do with aliens.” He got up and started walking around the room which was his office. “Strange things are happening on this planet, and I intend to make sure that they work fully to my advantage.”

His assistant didn’t need to be told that. He knew well his superior’s ambitions, and what he was prepared to do to achieve them. Elections were due, and the General was determined to win them by whatever means were necessary. Still, what did that have to do with either inexplicable natural phenomena or ancient relics? 

“And how will The Pyramid help you to do that, General?” he asked. There was a silence. Finally the General returned to his desk and started to busy himself with some documents. “You may go, Qoraq.” His subordinate inclined his head and departed. As soon as he did so, the General switched on the intercom on his desk. “Have you got it?” he asked. “Yes, it’s here, General,” a female voice replied. “Excellent.” The military man smiled. “Bring it to me now. “

* * *

There was a strange wheezing noise, and all of sudden, a small pyramid shape was in the middle of a large park where it had not been before. There were other pyramids set around the park, all small, and of different types. Some were square-based like the Pyramids of Giza, others had a triangular or pentagonal base, and others were cones, reaching upwards from a circular base. The one which had just materialized was square-based. A door in it opened, and an old man with long white hair, clad in the attire of early 20th century Europe, peered out. He looked around and guessed he was in some sort of recreation ground. There were paths weaving their way between the lawns and trees, and benches set alongside them. A little beyond the park, the buildings of a city could be seen, and a range of mountains was visible in the distance. A few humanoids were strolling about, presumably the native species of this planet. They looked very like his own people, and the natives of his favourite planet, Earth. None of them seemed to be threatening. The sky was clear, and a brilliant sun was casting its rays over the whole scene. It all had the air of a lazy holiday afternoon, and the old man called back into the pyramid: “Susan! It’s safe to come out. There seems to be no danger here.”

A dark-haired girl wearing trousers and a striped T-shirt emerged and took his arm. “It’s lovely, Grandfather,” she said. “Do you know what planet we’re on?”

“Not yet child, but I suggest we find out. Besides, what a pleasant day for a walk.” He took out a key, locked the door, and the two set off.

A few of the strollers looked at them, presumably because of their strange appearance, but no-one approached them. They left the park, and made their way into the city streets, full of people going about their business, walking or driving in wheeled conveyances, not unlike what humans called cars. After a while, they came to what was obviously some sort of telescreen in the city centre, with a large number of people crowded around it. They stopped to see what they were watching.

A young man looked at them curiously for a while. He seemed unsure about something, but then spoke to them. He was pleasant enough.

“Hello. You don’t look local. Tourists, are you?”

“Er, yes. Yes, you might say that, young man.”

“Well, what are you doing here, er…?” He hesitated.

“Doctor. You can call me the Doctor and this is my granddaughter Susan. We are just taking in the sights.”

The Doctor looked up at the tele-screen, which was broadcasting a news bulletin. Apparently the planet – the announcer called it Derva – had made its first successful launch of a small satellite into space. The Doctor nodded to himself. It suggested that Derva was more or less on the same technical level as Earth in the 1950s. That fitted with everything else he had seen. 

The broadcast moved on to another item, some elections scheduled for the near future. That didn’t much interest The Doctor. Besides, something else had grabbed his attention. He had not noticed it before because the mountains had obscured it, but now it dominated the skyline. 

“Young man,” he said to his companion. “What is that?”

The young man didn’t trouble to take his eyes from the screen. “Mmmm? What’s what?”

“That structure. What is a thing like that doing here?”

It was indeed a remarkable structure. It was conical in shape, rising from a huge circular base up to a peak that must have been 2,000 feet or more above the ground. Its sides were not smooth, but had a terrace winding around them, with markings set at intervals along the way. It gleamed in the sunlight, and appeared to be made of some sort of bluish-grey metal. The young man glanced at it without much interest.

“Oh, that. The Pyramid.”

“But what is it.”

“Well… no-one really knows. It’s been here for as long as anyone can remember. It’s mentioned in our oldest records, after all.”

“And how old are they?”

“About ten thousand years old.” He gave the Doctor and Susan an odd look, as if he expected them to know these things.

“Grandfather,” Susan whispered. “A civilization on this level couldn’t build something like that now, let alone ten thousand years ago.”

“Quite so, child, quite so.” He turned to the young man again. “My dear boy, surely your ancestors were not far removed from the stone age ten thousand years ago.”

“You’re quite right. That’s why a lot of people believe the Pyramid must have been built by passing aliens. Whoever they were, they did their job well. The archaeologists have tried to get into it, and they’ve never managed to even dent it. The aliens didn’t leave any traces either, so no-one knows why they built it.” He looked at them curiously. “Hey, where are you two from? Everyone knows about the Pyramid.”

“Ah, well, we are from quite a distance,” the Doctor said, tapping his fingers together. 

“You must have been out of the world not to know about the Pyramid,” the man said. “Well, we have been travelling a lot lately,” replied the Doctor. “We haven’t had much chance to…er… keep up with the news.” The man looked at them curiously again, and then turned his attention back to the telescreen.

It droned on. The Doctor took little notice of it – he was glancing all the time at the strange construction. Susan had a sinking feeling in her stomach. She could see that look in her grandfather’s eyes – the look that told her he was curious. And when that was the case, trouble usually followed.

“Grandfather,” she asked, “what are you thinking?”

“Mmm? Oh, about that object, my child. What was it built for, who built it, and what’s inside it, hmm?”

“Why should we worry? After all, there’s nothing implausible in what he says. Things like that happen all over the universe. And it doesn’t seem to do any harm. ”

“But don’t you want to know the details, my dear?”

“I think I’d rather leave well alone. Besides, you heard what he said, no-one has ever managed to get into it.”

“Nonsense, child. With their abilities, maybe not. With the equipment we have in the TARDIS, it might be easier. Let’s get back there now.”

He was already getting ready to leave. Susan shook her head with resignation and went after him.

The TARDIS remained where they had left it in the park. The Doctor unlocked the door and he and Susan entered. They walked into an empty space with bare dark walls about 6 feet square.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stranded without the TARDIS on a planet where very strange things are happening, the Doctor and Susan get involved in its politics.

Susan grasped the Doctor’s arm in panic. “Grandfather…. the internal dimensions…. What’s happened to them?”

“I wish I knew, child. I only wish I knew.” He kept his voice calm, but inside he too felt a rising sense of panic. The TARDIS was normally impregnable. More than that, anything that could remove its internal dimensions – which were constructed, enlarged, and mapped onto the outer plasmic shell by complex mathematical formulae – had to be very powerful indeed. As powerful as his own people….. 

“And no-one on this planet could be that powerful,” he muttered to himself.

“What?”

“I said no-one on this planet could be powerful enough to remove the TARDIS’s internal dimensions.” He fell silent.

“But what shall we do Grandfather? Without the TARDIS interior, we can never leave this world!”

“Precisely, child. Therefore this isn’t the time to panic but to think. Certainly this civilization could not achieve such a feat. That leaves us with…..” For a moment he thought of his own people. He hoped they had not caught up with him after he had left them in a fit of pique some years ago, but this was not their style. If they wanted to capture him, they could do it without so much trouble. No this was surely connected to….

“…… that Pyramid object. That’s the only thing we’ve seen so far that is not of this world. We must pay it a visit now, my dear.”

The terracing of The Pyramid was covered in day -trippers, walking up and down, admiring its construction and art. The structure was obviously a popular site for a day out. The Doctor, looking down from a high vantage point, could see many smaller pyramid shaped structures in the city below. He recalled the pyramids in the park. The mysterious artifact had obviously exerted a great deal of influence on Dervan culture. That was understandable, he supposed. He turned his attention to examining every part of the outside. There were no obvious doors. The strange patterns that decorated the walls every so often looked vaguely familiar to him, but offered no clue. He listened carefully. No sounds, no hums that could indicate electronic activity. He felt the walls. No vibrations, nothing to indicate what was inside it. The whole thing was, as his informant at the telescreen had told him, a gigantic enigma. 

Suddenly there was a commotion nearby. A number of walkers were shouting and pointing up at the sky. “Look, it’s happening again,’ one of them cried out. This was the signal for a mass panic. Strollers began to dash down the Pyramid, still looking and pointing at the sky. The Doctor and Susan were pressed against a wall, but were still able to look at the sky.

Something quite unbelievable was happening. The sun had changed its colour and shape. When they had arrived, it had been an ordinary yellow-white sun, rather similar to Earth’s. Now it was flaring red, and seemed to have increased in size – almost filling the sky. It was almost as if, thought the Doctor, the star had changed from a main sequence star to a red giant in a matter of moments. They remained pressed against the wall, figuring it was probably the safest place at the moment. Then, as suddenly as it had happened, the sun changed again. Once again, it was a normal main sequence star, shedding its benevolent rays on the planet it gave life to.

* * *

“I tell you, there was something very strange about them,” the young man from the telescreen was saying to a disparate group of people in a large, elegantly-furnished room. “The way they were dressed….. and you know, they didn’t seem to know about The Pyramid. Another thing. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but it struck me later – the old man talked about ‘your ancestors’, not ‘our’."

“What are you implying, Tekwe?” an elderly man in splendid robes asked. “Are you saying they’re not from Derva?” Some of the others laughed.

“I don’t know, Councilman. But they were very strange, and the old man seemed very interested in the Pyramid.”

“Well, we know that wasn’t built by native Dervans,” said a young woman. A man in military uniform beside her stirred. 

“Actually, General Nargel doesn’t believe that. What’s more, he seems to know something about it that he’s not telling anyone. And I think he thinks the Pyramid has something to do with these disasters.”

“That’s nonsense, Qoraq,” said another young man. “The Pyramid is inert. It doesn’t do anything. It’s been here for millennia, and nothing like this has ever happened before. Our concern is only with the General.”

“Suppose there is a connection, though,” Tekwe suggested. He had been working the matter out, to his own satisfaction, at least. “Suppose these two are aliens – not necessarily the builders of the Pyramid, but aliens with great technical knowledge. If they’re working with the General, they might have given him the knowledge to access the Pyramid, find out what’s inside it, what it’s for. Maybe there’s something there that, if you control it…..

“Is causing these disasters?” The young woman finished the sentence for him. 

“Exactly, Giljir. It’s possible, isn’t it?”

“Well” the elderly man said. “Maybe we should make the acquaintance of these two, and find out what they know.” There was a murmur of agreement around the room.

* * *

The panic had died away, and the Doctor and Susan were walking at the base of the Pyramid, baffled and trying to figure out what had happened. They took little notice of a group of people walking towards them, until their leader called out, “Doctor!” He recognized the young man he had been talking to earlier.

“Ah, my boy ….” he began, only to stop as he realized that they were surrounding him in a way that brooked no possibility of escape. Susan looked up at him, apprehensive. “What is all this about?” he asked tetchily. “How dare you…?”

“We’d just like you to visit us, Doctor,” one of the group said. “We don’t want anything to get ugly, so just walk along like we’re all out for a casual stroll.” He prodded him in the back with what felt like a gun.

It was not the first time something like this had happened to the Doctor. He usually found that the best thing was to go along with it, and a possibility of escape would present itself later. Furthermore – he looked carefully at his captors – these people did not seem like violent criminals or agents of some tyrant. He got the impression they were frightened more than anything else. He nodded to Susan, and they all moved off.

They were led to a splendid building, set in a large garden. It was obviously the home of someone of wealth or importance, the Doctor reflected. They entered an ornately decorated reception room, went up a large staircase and entered a large room . It was as luxurious as the rest of the house. A man sat behind a desk, looking at them. The Doctor took in his appearance. Grey-haired, distinguished- looking, expensive but not ostentatious dress. Clearly someone of importance in Dervan society. A politician, perhaps.

When the door was closed, he spoke. “You two are not from this planet,” he said bluntly.

“And what in the world makes you think that?”

“Never mind that. Why are you helping the General? What information have you given him?”

“My good man, I don’t have the first idea what you’re talking about.”

“What do you know about the Pyramid?”

“I know nothing about it –I think your companion here could vouch for that.” He glared at Tekwe.  
“But you are from another world?”

“That is true,” said the Doctor, not seeing any point in denying it. “My granddaughter and I arrived by accident, and our craft is, for the moment, disabled. Apart from that, I know nothing at all about your world, and nothing about any General. In fact, I’d like some answers from you. What, for instance, was that incident with the sun earlier?” A suspicion was developing in his mind that it might have something to do with the loss of the TARDIS interior. But he was not going to say anything about that yet.

“And who are you people?” Susan asked. “Are you rebels? Is this some sort of political conspiracy?”

Their interrogator smiled. “Not yet, and maybe.” 

“But why? This seems like a peaceful, stable sort of world.”

“Oh it is. Derva, is a peaceful planet,” he said. “Of course, it isn’t completely without problems, and we have a small army as a precaution.” He looked at a man in military uniform seated nearby. “But we have never had any desire for conquest. But let me explain. I am Councilman Zarvil, a member of the ruling assembly of Derva. I’m standing for President in the elections which are being held soon. These are some of my supporters.”

“My dear man, if I got involved in the politics of every world I visited….” 

“Grandfather!” Susan whispered. “Let him explain.” She knew only too well what he was like when he launched into one of his tirades.

“I should.” He put on his best politician’s smile. “In recent years, we’ve started developing a space programme, and ever since, a faction in the military has arisen that sees this as an opportunity. They want the militarization of space, and eventually, they hope, our space programme will become the means of conquering other worlds. Their leader is General Nargel. They haven’t had much success in convincing the populace yet….”

“And we intend to make sure they never do,” the woman called Giljir put in. “But recently, very strange things have been happening to our sun. It keeps…. changing. Sometimes, without any warning, it turns red and seems to swell up. Sometimes it seems to shrink, and its outline becomes vague, and the temperature falls. At first it was rare. Some people argued that the changes weren’t real – it was all in people’s minds. But now they are becoming more common. They don’t last long. But as you can imagine, this is affecting our world. Crops are failing, the weather is in chaos, and people are becoming very afraid. They want explanations. They want something to be done.”

“But it must be a natural phenomenon!” Susan exclaimed. “No-one on your world could have any power to affect the sun!”

“No. But aliens could.”

“Oh, and you think we have something to do with it?” the Doctor blustered. “Then let me tell you….“ 

“General Nargel is standing for President, too.” Tekwe interrupted “His militaristic policies are not popular with the public at the moment, but if he offers some solution to the problem with the sun his popularity would surge. Then he would be free to do as he pleases.”

“Yes, he is my rival in the election,” the Councilman added. He smiled wistfully. “I rather regret that. We were friends once. Let that be as it may. Luckily, I made the acquaintance of Qoraq here at that time, who’s one of his aides, but whose sympathies still lie with the traditions of Dervan culture. Qoraq’s very helpful when it comes to giving us information about his plans.”

“He’s very close, even with me,” Qoraq said. “However, he seems to know something about the Pyramid. We don’t know what, but we do know the Pyramid is not of this planet. Perhaps he has found out, something that is enabling him to cause these disasters –with the help of aliens, maybe.”

The Doctor could guess the rest. “And if he is causing them, he can stop them. Yes, yes indeed.” He tapped his fingers together. “A promise to stop them would certainly win him all the support he needs. But Susan and I have no involvement in these matters, none whatsoever. We are, however, prepared to help you.” Indeed he had no choice. If the disappearance of the TARDIS’ interior was connected with these strange happenings, he had to find out what was going on. 

“How will you do that?” Qoraq asked. 

“Well, this is just a hypothesis – but your sun is a main sequence star, isn’t it?”

“A what?”

The Doctor should of course have realized that most of his audience would know little about stellar evolution.

“A star that’s fusing hydrogen into helium, in a state of equilibrium. Now, it occurs to me that when these changes occur, what you’re seeing is the star at various stages of its development. Sometimes you see it as a red giant, a star near the end of its life. Other times you see it as it was when it was forming, billions of years ago. That indicates to me that something is going wrong with time. And I am something of an expert when it comes to time.” 

“So what do you think?” asked Tekwe. “Is it a natural phenomenon, or is it connected with the Pyramid?

“That is what it is necessary to find out. “ 

“And where would the General fit in?” Giljir asked.

“We must establish that too.”

“We will,” said Councilman Zarvil. “In the meantime, Doctor, you and the girl will stay with us. We don’t know if we can trust you yet.


	3. Chapter 3

“What’s puzzling me, Sir,” Qoraq said to his superior, “is how you’re going to convince the public you can do something about the disasters. After all – even allowing that the public can be easily gulled – no-one could believe that you can affect the sun.”

“Of course not,” the General replied. “I’m not going to make such a claim. Remember, most of our populace believe the Pyramid was built by aliens. I’m going to tell them that those aliens have returned, and that they are causing the solar problems as a precursor to invasion. They are using the Pyramid as their instrument, and therefore the solution is a full-scale attack on it, using atomic weapons.” The principle of such weapons had been understood by the Dervans for many years, but they had never had any occasion to manufacture them until now.

“But we don’t have any such weapons at the moment”, Qoraq said. “And besides, public opinion would be very much against such a course of action.”

“Oh, public opinion will change very quickly if they think they will solve the problem.”

“And how do we know that they will solve it? After all, how do we know what will be effective against something alien?”

The General gave him a pitying look. “My dear Qoraq, it doesn’t need to be true. This is politics, remember.”

Now what does he mean by that? Qoraq thought. He decided to try to find out in an indirect way.

“The first televised debate is to take place a week from now. How will you present your case?”

“Qoraq, if there is another disaster before that time, I won’t need to present it.” 

So he is causing the disasters! The thought flashed through Qoraq’s mind almost before he was aware of it. But what could be more obvious?

“Don’t you agree with me?” the General asked.

“Of course, Sir.”

“Yes, I rather thought you might.” Nargel looked at him curiously. There was a silence, which was ended by another aide entering. She held a large black folder, and she didn’t notice Qoraq as she came in. “General, I’ve got what you wanted…” She saw Qoraq, and fell silent. If General Nargel was disconcerted, he didn’t show it. “Ah yes, the transcript of my speech for the televised debate. Just leave it on my desk, Saren. He glanced at Qoraq. 

“You’re dismissed.” When his assistant had left the room, he beckoned Saren over to him, and began talking to her in a low voice. She nodded and glanced at where Qoraq had been. She seemed to understand what he wanted.

* * * 

“Grandfather,” Susan said, “anything that can affect time to the extent it’s being affected here must be very powerful indeed. Even for our people this would be a remarkable feat.”

“Exactly, child. That ‘s what’s worrying me. That is why we must find out about this General person at all costs.”

Susan understood his meaning. The Doctor had fled from their own people because he was bored with their way of life, but he still abided by the laws of time, and by his obligation to see that they were not broken. Others of their race were not so scrupulous. 

They turned back to the spectrograph they were examining. The Doctor had asked for it in order to find out the composition of Derva’s sun, and a scientist of Zarvil’s acquaintance had been able to obtain it. It showed nothing unusual. The star was, as he suspected, an ordinary main sequence star, consisting largely of hydrogen and helium. “There are no clues here,” he said. He turned his attention back to the others. Zarvil was not present, having to make preparations for the televised debate. ‘Tell me, do these changes happen on a regular basis?”

“Not that we’ve noticed.” Giljir said. “They seem quite random. That’s what makes them so frightening.” 

“I see. That’s unfortunate, because I want to make another visit to that Pyramid. I want to be there the next time one of these temporal aberrations happens.”

“What good will that do?” 

“Young woman, that is for me to know. Now, when can I go there?”

“Any time you like. It’s a popular tourist attraction. In fact, there’s a camp site not far from it, so if you want to make sure you’re there the next time it happens, that’s the place to be.”

“Splendid. That will do nicely. Now, I want to know all you can tell me about this General. When he was born, where he was born, what his career was before he joined the military. And didn’t someone tell me that this Pyramid is mentioned in your oldest records?”

“That’s true Doctor,” Tekwe replied. “It is.”  
“There may be clues there. How can I get hold of them?”

“Not so easy. They’re held in the Government archives. And then there’s the language problem. They’re in the most ancient form of Old Dervan.”

“Young man, if they’re held in government archives, surely Councilman Zarvil will be able to obtain them, hmmm?” the Doctor snapped. “And is it beyond your abilities to get hold of an expert on your ancient languages?”

“We can try,” said Tekwe.

“Kindly do so. Now, we must make sure we are near this Pyramid the next time something happens to your sun. Oh, yes, one more thing. There’s some property of mine in a park near the city centre. I would like it brought here. It is at the moment in the shape of a small pyramid, I can show you which one. I’ve already lost something very valuable from it, and I don’t want to lose the rest.” He would tell them no more. He did not intend to reveal too much to these people yet. However pleasant they seemed, he still did not know who on this planet he could trust.

The TARDIS was brought back from the park, and was soon in the grounds of Zarvil’s house. It was not likely to attract much attention from passers-by, but it caused much curiosity among the Councilman’s staff. 

“It looks for all the world like an ordinary Dervan garden ornament,” Tekwe said. “May I ask what it is?”

“You may not!” the Doctor snapped. “That is my concern. Yours is to make sure it is kept safe. Now, when are we going to that Pyramid?”

* * *

“This is boring, Grandfather,” Susan complained. “We’ve been here for days, and nothing has happened. Isn’t there any other way…?” 

“Well, without the help of the TARDIS, child, no there isn’t. Besides, it’s not really so terrible here is it?” Indeed the Doctor seemed to be having the time of his life. He was lying back on the grass, soaking up the sunshine. Giljir, who was with them, had given them Dervan attire, and so they could pass for all the world like ordinary Dervans on a holiday. There were fewer of the latter around, to be sure, because of the strange event that had happened on their last visit, but nonetheless the area still had a tourist feel about it. 

Giljir stood up. “I’ll go and get us some refreshments,” she said. “Since we’re here for the long haul.” She was about to head in the direction of a stall selling local delicacies when the Doctor suddenly sat bolt upright, all languor gone, alert and aware – searching, it seemed to Giljir. “Something’s happening,” he exclaimed. 

“I can’t see anything,” the young woman replied. She looked around at the pleasant scene, apparently unchanged from a moment before.

“It’s not about what you can see,” snapped the Doctor - and suddenly something did start to happen. The sky darkened, and the sun seemed to fade until only a vague, gaseous mass was present where it had been – it had regressed to the earliest stage of its existence, Susan guessed. But unlike their first experience, this time there was more. The ground began to shake, and to Giljir and many others, it seemed to be falling away. Reality itself seemed to be almost fading out of existence. The Pyramid itself was shaking and trembling. Its outline became vague, then sharpened back into focus. Then it seemed to fade again. Susan and Giljir clung to each other, terrified of whatever strange forces were in operation. The Doctor, however, continued to sit bolt upright, his eyes closed, like a monk in meditation, apparently concentrating on something very specific. Then, all of a sudden, the Pyramid blinked out of existence.


	4. Chapter 4

It was like floating down a long dark tunnel, Susan thought. The world she had seen just moments before was no longer there, and in its place was a long dark tunnel with twists and turns everywhere but nowhere to go. She felt she should have been frightened but wasn’t. There was something vaguely familiar about it all, even comforting. She knew this place….it had a name…..if only she could remember……

All of a sudden it was gone. The world was back before her eyes, and the sun was shining yellowish-white, just as before. The Pyramid was back in its place, but the scene around her was one of considerable chaos. Structures had collapsed and large numbers of people lay on the ground – some of them were obviously in a bad way. She got up gingerly and went over to Giljir, who was trembling on the ground and helped her up. Then she saw the Doctor still sitting unperturbed. He opened his eyes, stared at them, and tapped his fingers together. “Yes, just as I thought. A massive dimensional disturbance. Massive. And the focus of it all is that Pyramid.”

“How do you know that?” Giljir asked. She had recovered enough from the shock to be able to speak. 

“Because I am not of your race, child. I have senses you do not have. I can detect fluctuations in time and in other dimensions that you are not aware of. Oh, it would be better with the help of my TARDIS – my spacecraft, that is – but even with the raw senses unaided, I could still detect the massive time distortion that just happened, and its epicenter – your Pyramid.”

“You can do all that?” Giljir seemed incredulous. The Doctor grabbed his lapels and gave her a withering look. 

“I can do all that and more! For instance, I can even detect which of the dimensions of time were being affected.”

“Dimensions of time?”

“Yes, dimensions. Oh, there is more than the one dimension of time you perceive, young woman, just as there is more than one dimension of space.”

“And you?” Giljir looked at Susan.

“Not yet.” Susan smiled. “I will one day, after I undergo maturation, but for now, I can only perceive the dimensions of time in the vaguest way. Grandfather, when it was happening, I felt I was in….it seemed like….”

“Yes, the vortex. You were in the vortex, child. That’s what it’s like when you experience it without the protection of the TARDIS.” He turned to Giljir. “Where all the dimensions merge and all points in time are experienced simultaneously,” he explained. She seemed none the wiser.

“Vortex, other dimensions of time. This is all a bit much for me. But you know what is happening?”

“Not quite, but I have an idea about these disturbances. The time perturbation begins in the Pyramid, and extends beyond this planet, becoming at its strongest around your sun. There, it is distorting time so badly, that it is pulling the star through all the stages of its existence. But I still have no idea how the Pyramid is causing it.”

Giljir looked at the gigantic structure. It was a familiar sight, one she had known since childhood. It had inspired art and culture. Never before had it been a source of terror. Now it was transformed. “That thing,” she murmured to herself. “What is it? What the hell is it?”

* * * 

“And there can be no doubt,” General Nargel said from his podium in a stern voice to the vid -cameras “that our world is under alien attack. The events of yesterday prove it. Such times always require that we rethink much of what we have taken for granted. I know that our civilization has always looked at violence as a last resort” – here his voice became ingratiating – “but it must surely be obvious to even the most cautious that the time has come for resolute measures….” He shot a glance over to the opposite podium, where Councilman Zarvil had an amused smile on his face that was very far from reflecting what he was feeling. Between them a moderator was trying to look neutral.

Tekwe turned away from the tele-screen and looked at his friends. “And we all know what he’ll say now. How necessary it is to develop atomic weapons against the alien threat…. how they’ll only be used when necessary…”

“And how convenient it is for him,” Giljir added. “We have no way of knowing whether they’ll be effective against …against whatever is in the Pyramid, or even what the nature of the threat is, but they’ll be very useful for the campaign of conquest that he and his ilk want to set us on one day.” They turned back to the tele-screen. Nargel was still on screen.

“….. and of course such measures will be temporary. As soon as the emergency is over the necessity of having such weapons on Derva will of course be reviewed….”

“Councilman Zarvil, would you like to reply?” asked the moderator. Zarvil smiled. “There’s nothing as permanent as a temporary government measure, so an old saying goes,” he said. “Let him have his way, and we will be stuck with these horrifying weapons forever. More than that, maybe. It could be the start of something much worse. Suppose there is another crisis – and another – and then another? Will General Nargel then tell us that we require more weapons– and then more. Mark my words, my friends, if you listen to this man, there is a serious risk that we will end up with an all-powerful military allied to industry and business, all working to each other’s advantage, and keeping the rest of us in thrall forever. Our society will be transformed forever into something that has never existed before in all our long history. Is that the kind of future you want for your children and grandchildren?” 

“He’s impressive.” Susan, who had been standing at the back of the group, came over to join them. “He’d certainly win my vote.”

“But not necessarily those of the Dervans.” The Doctor now spoke up. “While events like yesterday’s continue to happen, fear will tend to override reason, my dear. And people believe things more easily when they fit in with what they already think they know. Most of the Dervans already believe that structure was built by aliens – General Nargel will have no problems convincing them that the aliens have returned.”

“But he doesn’t believe it,” Susan put it. “Didn’t his assistant, Qoraq, say that?” She looked around. “By the way, where is he?”

“Oh, he’ll be dancing attendance on Nargel while the presidential debate is happening,” Tekwe said. “The point is, if aliens aren’t responsible for what’s been happening, what is?” He turned the vid-screen off. If we could find that out, perhaps we could thwart his plans before they go any further. Do you have any ideas Doctor?”

“My dear boy, if I had, don’t you think I’d have told you before now? All I know is that your Pyramid is the centre of a time distortion that can reach far across space to your sun. What precisely is causing it is still unknown to me. Now, I have always found that it is a great mistake to speculate without knowing all the facts first. So, what do we know? A structure that has been here for at least ten thousand years, and has never caused any harm before now. All of a sudden, it seems to become active, and starts creating havoc. What does that indicate? ”

“That the aliens who built it left something inside which has been dormant for all these years – and now it’s waking up?” Giljir speculated. 

“Mmmm. It’s possible. But why is this General so sure it wasn’t built by aliens?”

She shrugged. “To put us off the scent?”

“That must be it. After all, it couldn’t be a natural phenomenon.” Tekwe said. “The thing was obviously built. It couldn’t be natural, could it?” 

The Doctor tapped his fingers together. Years of experience of what was possible in the universe had taught him not to draw too many conclusions about what could or could not be a natural phenomenon. Nonetheless, it wasn’t very likely, he thought. He looked up. “Probably not. Now, when will I be able to see these ancient records of yours?”  
Giljir slapped her head. “I’d completely forgotten about it, what with so many things to do recently. I’ll get on to it as soon as I can.”

“Then please make it quick. At the moment, the only clues we may have as to what’s going on may be in those records.” 

* * *

“Do you think it went well, Qoraq?” General Nargel asked as they left the studios where the debate had been held.

“I think you probably made a great impression on the public,” his assistant replied carefully. “We’ll see what the opinion polls say tomorrow.”

“Yes, that’s the all-important thing, public opinion. Luckily it can be manipulated. What are you doing now, Qoraq?”

“I think I’ll just go home, Sir.”

“Good idea. We’ll have a busy day tomorrow. Good night.”

“Good night, Sir.”

Nargel’s eyes followed him as he left the building. Then his other aide, the woman Saren appeared. “Did you find out?” he asked. 

“Yes. I’ve kept him under surveillance every day. He’s working with Councilman Zarvil. He frequently visits his house. And now they’ve got two new recruits, an old man and a girl. They’ve been hovering around the Pyramid for days. They were there yesterday with Giljir, one of his field workers. And you know, there’s something strange about that old man. Not long ago, I saw some of Zarvil’s aides bringing a pyramid – you know, like the ones we have in the parks and gardens – to his garden.”

“What in the world would Zarvil’s crowd want with that?”

“No idea. But the old man seemed to think it was very important. He was dashing around and giving orders quite as though he owned the place. There are other strange things, too. Yesterday, at the Pyramid, when everyone else was running around in a panic, he was just sitting there with his eyes closed, calm and collected. Almost as though he knew what was happening.”

“Indeed?” Nargel was silent for a while. “I think I’d like to meet this old man. We must arrange it. It must be done discreetly of course. We don’t want anything to happen that could lead to unpleasant headlines in the newspapers. That wouldn’t do at all.”


	5. Chapter 5

“My dear Doctor, I wish I had known sooner. I could have helped you immediately.” Councilman Zarvil was now back at home, after the debate the night before. “I was a scholar of the ancient languages myself once, before I went into politics. As soon as Giljir returns from the Government Archives, we’ll see what we can gather from the ancient records. In the meantime, is there anything more immediate we can do?”

The Doctor looked up from the picture of the Pyramid he was examining. “Tell me, does anyone have any idea what this thing is made of?”

Tekwe, who was standing nearby, shook his head. “No. It defies analysis. The best efforts of our scientists have never been able to establish what it is.”

“It looks like some sort of metal,” Susan opined.

“Yes, yes, my dear, but what does that signify? After all the TARDIS can look like metal if it needs to, or stone, or wood, or …... or .…..I wonder. I wonder!”

“You wonder what?” Tekwe was puzzled.

“Is this TARDIS your spacecraft, Doctor?” asked Zarvil. “I gather from Susan here that it’s not like any kind of spacecraft we can imagine.”

“No, indeed it’s not. More significantly, it’s not made of any kind of substance you can imagine. Both the outer plasmic shell of the TARDIS and its internal structure are constructed of the raw stuff of matter. By controlling the forces through which that stuff becomes normal matter, we can make both the internal and external dimensions of the TARDIS take on any appearance. I wonder..…..”

“Are you suggesting the Pyramid is made of the same sort of thing?” Tekwe asked.

“You mean it’s some kind of TARDIS?” Susan ventured.

The Doctor was in fact beginning to wonder if this was the case. He recalled his earlier dark suspicions about who the General might be. Nonetheless, there were still problems.

“It’s possible,” he replied. “But a TARDIS is designed to blend in with its surroundings, so that it doesn’t arouse suspicion. That entity could hardly be more noticeable. Furthermore, who would bring a TARDIS to a world and leave it for ten thousand years? Was it abandoned? Why didn’t its owner return for it, hmmm? Now it may be that similar principles are involved, but what they are, and who is responsible remains to be seen.” And what sort of powers they have, he thought, but didn’t say so. He returned his attention to the picture, this time looking at the markings on the Pyramid. They were familiar – what was familiar about them? 

He struck his head as he realized. “Of course! Fractals!”

“Fractals?” Tekwe sighed. “Doctor, will you talk some sort of language people can understand?” 

“Fractals, my boy, fractals. Self-replicating patterns that are very common in living things. But why are they here? Are they intended as some sort of symbol or means of communication, hhmm? What’s their significance?”

His musing were interrupted by the entrance of Giljir. She went straight over to Zarvil. “They’re gone,” she said. “Someone’s taken them out.”

The Doctor looked up. “What, the ancient records?” he asked.

“Yes. They’re all out.” She looked anxious.

“Well, there need be nothing untoward in that,” said the Councilman. “After all, many scholars have an interest in them. And there should be a record of who’s taken them. I wouldn’t worry about it. In the meantime Doctor, I can think of something that might be useful. I still have some of my old academic papers around, attempts at translating the ancient writings, that sort of thing. You can look at them if it’s any help.”

“Yes, yes, if you could find them that would be most helpful.”

“I’ll seek them out now, Doctor.”

“And now, there’s work to be done,” said the Doctor. “I can compare matter from the TARDIS’ outer shell to material from the Pyramid, and try and establish if they are the same sort of thing.”

“Where is your craft?” asked Zarvil.

“Just outside, in your garden.” 

“What, that thing in the garden? That’s the amazing TARDIS?” Tekwe looked at him with a good deal of amusement. 

“Yes, hmmm, well, at the moment it’s very far from amazing, my boy.” 

“Are you trying to tell me you have a spacecraft in that?”

“Yes, because the interior – when it’s here - doesn’t occupy the same points in space-time as the exterior,” the Doctor said stroppily.

“You mean it’s in some sort of alternate universe?”

“Mmmm? No, not at all. I mean it occupies a space-time bubble which is not the same as the one the external dimensions occupy. Still part of this space-time continuum, but a different portion of space-time.”

“And how…...?”

“By mapping one space–time event onto the other. Don’t they teach you basic mathematics in school on this planet, boy?”

“Not your kind, Doc.”

“And don’t call me Doc!”

“Well, let’s go and see this wonder, then!” 

Unfortunately, a surprise was in store. They had all gone into the garden and saw it immediately. “It’s gone!” the Doctor gasped. “It’s gone!” He groaned inwardly. The interior had already vanished. With the outer shell gone, too, his opportunities for dealing with the situation were rapidly diminishing.

“My dear Doctor, I’m so sorry,” Councilman Zarvil said. “I should have put a guard on it. You see, we don’t have a great deal of crime on this planet….”

“Yes, yes, quite,” muttered the Doctor. “The point is, it’s gone and we must get it back.”

“I’ll contact the police,” Tekwe said.

“No. I’d rather not have the police involved if you don’t mind.” He began to study the area. “Besides, there are clues here. Look. Around the area where the TARDIS was, you can see compressions in the grass. They look rather like the marks of boots to me.”

“Yes, and here on the path are some dirt marks,” Tekwe said. They look as though they could have come from boots too. So it was thieves after all. Not very careful, were they?”

“No, they weren’t.” The Doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and looked around him with the eye of a hawk. The area was a mess. Some flowers, and leaves had been torn off the nearby bushes. There was a coin on the lawn, a few scraps of a plastic-like substance, and some torn pieces of paper. It was, the Doctor considered, far too perfect a mess. He picked up one of the pieces of paper and examined it. It was torn, and dirty, but writing was still visible on it. The Doctor showed it to Tekwe. 

“Does this mean anything to you?”

The young man looked at it carefully. “It looks like an address. I can just make out…...yes, it’s not far from here.” He shook his head. “All I can say is, whoever this lot were, they weren’t very professional. Clues all over the place.”

“Indeed. Rather too many,” the Doctor said. “Whoever has taken the TARDIS wants to be traced. Now what, I wonder, does that mean?” Whatever it meant, there was no alternative. He had to get it back, and furthermore, whoever had stolen it might be able to provide clues to this whole affair. “We’ll follow this clue, I think. You can come with me, Tekwe.”

“And me,” Susan piped up. 

“No Susan, I think it’s better if you stay here.”

“Grandfather…!”

“No, Susan! Don’t question my authority. You can work with Councilman Zarvil on his translations while we’re gone.” He looked at the Councilman, who nodded. “You’ll be more use to us that way.” And a lot safer from whatever we might meet when we find the TARDIS, he thought. “Now, when can we leave, Tekwe?” 

“Straight away. Just one thing – have you got a gun, Doctor?”

“Certainly not! I have a strong aversion to weapons of any kind, young man.”

“Well, I hope you don’t mind if I bring one. Just as a precaution,” he added, seeing the disapproving look on Zarvil’s face. “You say whoever took the TARDIS wants to be traced. Well, I’d like to be prepared for whatever we meet when we find it, Doc.”

“Don’t call me Doc!”

* * * 

“And this is one of the most interesting passages in The Scroll of Zorax,” Zarvil said. “It’s an account of how the culture hero Zorax founded our first cities.” He began to recite: “And then the city was built in the valley where the ‘something’ ‘something’ when it came down from heaven with fire about it”. Susan, Giljir and Councilman Zarvil were poring over an early attempt at translation of one of Derva’s most ancient records. “Don’t you have translations for those words?” Susan asked.

“No,” replied the Councilman. “I was never able to decipher them. All our languages have changed greatly since those days, and the meanings of a lot of ancient words have been lost.” 

“What about the next bit?” Susan asked. “What could come down from heaven with fire about it?”

“An alien spacecraft?” Giljir suggested. 

“Maybe,” the girl mused, “or….wait a minute…… it sounds like what happens when a meteorite reaches the ground! If it didn’t burn up in the atmosphere, it would be intensely hot when it reached the ground. It would certainly seem to have fire about it to anyone who saw it.”

“Possibly. But meteorites hit the ground all the time. I presume there would have to be something very special about a meteorite to make it into an ancient legend,” Zarvil said. 

“Well, if it was very large….” Giljir began.

“Which it would have to be to avoid being burned up in the atmosphere,” added Susan.

“……then it could make enough of an impression. If only we could figure out what these other words mean.”

“I can make a few guesses,” Zarvil said. “For example, this glyph here only occurs with nouns. So the next word must be a noun. That strongly indicates that the other missing word is a verb. After all, the bit that comes after it, ‘when it came down from heaven’, wouldn’t make much sense if the other word was another noun or an adjective. But beyond that, I can’t say. The meaning completely eludes me.”

* * *

The Doctor and Tekwe had found the address on the piece of paper without too much trouble. It was an ordinary-looking house in a respectable area of the city. The Doctor attached no importance to that. He looked around for ways of escape, should such be necessary. There were no gaps between the house and its neighbours, no alleyways by the side of the house that could lead into a garden, no obvious ways to enter apart from the front door. He placed a hand on Tekwe’s shoulder. 

“Now, we don’t know what will happen when that door is opened, my boy. Leave it to me, and don’t do anything rash. I’ve thought up a cover story in case it’s all entirely innocent.” Tekwe nodded – but made sure his gun was primed anyway.

They pressed a button on the door. There was a whistling sound, and a young woman answered. She looked at them with an unfriendly gaze.

“Ah, good morning,” the Doctor began. “I hope we’re not disturbing you, but I think a delivery that was meant for me was brought to this address by mistake. I’d like to collect….”

“You’ll collect something alright.” The Doctor and Tekwe fell silent as they saw the gun she was pointing at them.


	6. Chapter 6

Tekwe’s hand moved towards his gun, but the Doctor held it back, and shook his head slightly. He knew it was better not to provoke in such situations. Besides, he wanted to meet whoever was behind their kidnapping – he already had an idea who it might be.

“General Nargel, I presume,” he said as he and Tekwe were ushered into a room where a man in military uniform sat awaiting them. There were other military men in the room, all holding weapons.

“You know who I am?” his host replied.

“I’ve already heard a great deal about you.”

“And I about you. I wanted to meet you. I thought that this way we could arrange it without attracting too much attention. That’s not our way, is it, Saren? Not yet, anyway. ” He grinned at the young women, who grinned back. “It’s lucky we have a lot of safe houses. Please, take a seat. You know a lot about our Pyramid, I hear.”

“Not a lot,” the Doctor replied as he sat down. “I’m slowly learning about it. But the full picture still eludes me.”

“And you’re working for my rival, Councilman Zarvil?”

“Working? My dear Sir, I have never worked for anyone in my life. If you want to know, I…” - he searched for an explanation that the General would find understandable – “I’m looking for some property of mine that has disappeared from the ......... the item that you have just stolen. I suspect its disappearance has something to do with the odd occurrences on this planet. Once I have found it, I will leave you and your politics alone. Such things are of no concern to me.”

“Mmmm. And do you think these odd occurrences are connected to the Pyramid?”

He knows this as well as I do, the Doctor thought. But it was better not to give too much away. “It’s possible.”

“So you have as much interest in finding out as I have.”

“But not for the same reasons,” the Doctor muttered.

“Maybe. But you’re still working for my rival, and you obviously have knowledge that could be of great advantage to him. Listen, whatever he’s paying you, I’ll double it.”

“Paying me? He’s paying me nothing at all. There is no price that could buy me! I have told you the truth, Sir, whether you choose to believe it or not. All I want is my property back, and then I will leave you and your world to its own devices.” This was not wholly true. He did not in fact like the idea of a more or less peaceful world becoming another of the military dictatorships found so often around the universe. However, such things were not uncommon. There was little he could do about it, whatever his personal feelings were. All he wanted to do was find the TARDIS, leave with Susan, and hope that this planet would sort out its own problems in the course of time. “By the way, where is it?” he continued. “My stolen property?”

“You’ll get it back in due course – if you co-operate. I think I already understand a lot about the Pyramid, but I need the full picture. I want your help in discovering that.”

The Doctor decided to prevaricate. “And just how could I know anything about aliens who came to your planet ten thousand years ago?” 

“Aliens!” the General snorted contemptuously. “Most of our populace have aliens on the brain! All you need do is mention aliens and they’ll believe it without question!”

“But you won’t?” the Doctor said. “You don’t believe this structure was built by aliens, do you?”

“Believe? It’s not a matter of belief. I know. I know it wasn’t built by anyone. It’s alive.”

* * * 

Susan paced around the room nervously. She was wondering when her grandfather would be back. 

“He’s been gone so long,” she said. “He’s in trouble, I know he is. He always ends up in trouble when he goes off by himself.” And indeed under many other circumstances, she could have added. “I’ve got to go after him.”

“Susan, that really woudn’t be a good idea,” Zarvil said. “You could be going into very great danger. Look, I’ll send some of my staff to look for him. For you, the best thing would be to remain here. Giljir, perhaps you could take Susan into the library. I’m sure she would be very interested in reading something about our history and culture.” Giljir nodded. 

The library was a spacious room with a large window at one end and a table in the centre. Susan noticed the window was open, which gave her an idea. She did not want to act on it, because she liked these people, who had so far been very kind to her, but her anxiety about her grandfather was overriding all other considerations at the moment.

“Is there anything you would particularly like to see?” Giljir asked.

“Well, let’s start from the bottom shelves. Could you see what titles are down there?” Susan asked, keeping her eye on the window.

Giljir bent down. Without hesitation, Susan pushed the table against her, trapping her against the wall, and ran to the window. Before Giljir could break free, Susan was out of the window and making her escape.

* * * 

“It’s alive.”

If General Nargel expected this statement to take the Doctor by surprise, he was mistaken. The Doctor simply leaned back and rubbed his chin as though in contemplation. It was Tekwe who erupted.

“Alive? What do you mean, alive? How could anything live for ten thousand years? You’re mad! And how could you know that?”

“How could I know? Well, you can thank your hero Councilman Zarvil for that. But that’s not your concern right now,” he continued in answer to the shocked look on the young man’s face. “The point is this. If this thing is alive, it can be communicated with. I want to know how to do that. And you,” – he pointed at the Doctor – “will help me whether you like it or not.”

The Doctor stood up, grabbed his lapels and gave Nargel a look that could have melted steel.

“Really? Don’t you realize that even if it’s alive it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s intelligent? And even if that is so, how many myriad ways of communication do you think exist among intelligent life-forms, hmmmm? Besides, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What’s that?”

“Another of these time distortions – oh, yes, because that’s what they are, time distortions – could occur at any moment. And the next one could be much worse than before.”

“All the more reason why you should help me as soon as possible then, isn’t it? Nargel sneered.

“Very well.” The Doctor was considering his options. “There is one way I could help you immediately. If you give me back my TARDIS – that’s, the, er…. property you stole from me earlier - and take me to the Pyramid, I may be able to use it to find something out.” The General smiled.

“Yes, I got the impression there was something special about it. It’s being held at an army base near here. We can get it now. But remember – don’t try anything!”

The Doctor was, it seemed, no longer listening. Instead, he was staring straight ahead, as though trying to become aware of something very far away. It was a look, Nargel reflected, like that of a predator seeking its prey. 

“It’s starting again!” he said.

“What is?”

“The mutation of time. Oh, it’s small scale at the moment, on the quantum level, but I can still detect it. We had better act now – it could get much, much worse.” He was not entirely sure what he could do, if the worst was to happen, but in general, he found that doing something – anything - was better than doing nothing.

“Do you happen to know what the mass of your sun is?” he asked the General, as they all bustled out of the room.

* * * 

It was only after she was some distance from Zarvil’s residence that Susan realized she had no idea where the Doctor had gone. She groaned inwardly. Why did she so often act on the spur of the moment, instead of stopping to think first? She could imagine only too well what her grandfather would have to say to her when he found out – if he found out.

She pushed the thought aside. Where was she most likely to find him? There was really only one place. Whatever happened, it was highly likely that at some point all parties would end up there. To the Pyramid she would go, then.

Night was falling by the time she arrived. The metallic sides of the structure glinted in the fading light, and there was nobody around. The whole scene had a very eerie feel, and no doubt it was this, as well as her anxiety about the Doctor, that was causing her sense of unease – so Susan reasoned. Well, there was nothing for it but to stay there and wait. She sat down near the base, and tried to ignore the throbbing in her head.

She was totally unprepared when reality shattered. Once again, the world around her seemed to shimmer out of existence. The Pyramid itself did not disappear, as it had done on her last visit, but its spatial boundaries appeared to be shifting, and something appeared on its surface that she would have called a line – in fact, called a crack - had it been in ordinary three-dimensional space. But it was no longer three-dimensional space. Was reality was splitting apart? Again, Susan felt she was falling into the vortex. Out of sheer terror she lost consciousness.

Where was she? Slowly an awareness of her surroundings came back to her, but the place in which she found herself was like nowhere she had ever been before. In the dim light – which did not seem to have an artificial source – she could make out a complex mass of structures around her. Cold, metallic, but with a strangely organic feel, as though they had grown, not been made. Was she inside the Pyramid? She tried to move – and realized that she was no longer in her body. Then words began to form in her mind. She did not hear them, no voice had uttered a sound. The impression was totally mental. Yet she understood, in words of her own language. “Who are you?” The message was repeated. “Who are you?”


	7. Chapter 7

“Who are you?” The mental impression that seemed to be a voice echoed in Susan’s mind again. “Are you oneof the native species of this planet?”

“No!” Susan only hoped that she could organize her thoughts in some sort of form that this thing, whatever it was, could understand. “No! My name is Susan. I’m not from this planet. We arrived – my grandfather and I – by accident. We’ll leave as soon as we can. We mean you no harm. Please! Let me go! Let me go!”

* * *

“Why did you want to know the mass of our sun?” the General asked as they were on their way to the Pyramid. The TARDIS had been collected, and was now being transported on the back of a military vehicle. The Doctor and General Nargel were travelling in a vehicle ahead of it, together with Tekwe, Saren, and a couple of military thugs. The Doctor noted that they did not take their eyes – or their guns – from him at any moment.

“Hmmm, what was that?” he asked the General.

“What’s so special about the mass of our sun? How could that have any importance?”

“My dear Sir, it could have very great importance. These anomalies – these time distortions – are moving your sun through every stage of its evolution. Your sun’s final fate depends on its mass. If it is large enough, it will end its life as a supernova – which will wipe this planet and everything else in your solar system out of existence. Now, it seems to me that these time distortions are becoming more powerful. If they become strong enough to bring your sun to the supernova stage while there is still life on this planet……” he fell silent.

“Yes,” the General mused. “We wouldn’t want that – not now. How very interesting. Let’s get there quickly,” he said to his driver, and then seemed to become lost in thought. The Doctor felt disgusted. What an appalling man. His world was in the greatest danger it had ever been in, and all he could think about were his own ambitions. Why did the Doctor seem to meet his type so often on the worlds he visited?

Tekwe leaned forward to whisper to the Doctor. “Doctor,” he asked. “You didn’t seem surprised when he said it was alive. But how could something like the Pyramid be alive? Surely nothing could live for ten thousand years.”

“Couldn’t it? Have you had so much contact with alien life forms that you can be sure of that? What’s the average life expectancy of your species, eh?”

“Well, about 80-100 years.”  
“Indeed. Yet I suppose there are insects on this planet that live for only a few days. How would your life expectancy seem to them? How would you as a species seem to them? Exactly!” he nodded. “Exactly.” 

“But it’s surely not as simple as that, Doctor. After all, if a thing is alive, it….. well, it has to eat, for instance. What would a thing like this eat?”

“A very good question my boy,” the Doctor said. “What, indeed, would it eat?”

“And how could he know that the Pyramid is causing the time anomalies? After all, he’s not like you. He doesn’t have your powers.”

“No, we can be thankful for that,” replied the Doctor. One of the first things he had done when introduced to the General was to check his aura. It was not one of the powerful auras of his own species. So that anxiety, at least, could be laid to rest.

The General had heard this last part of the conversation. “How do I know?” he snorted. “I’ll tell you how I know. Because it’s happened before.”

The time distortion hit them like a thunderbolt. The Doctor only had a moment to hope that the disaster he feared was not upon them before the surrounding reality started flickering in and out of existence. Then there was the sense of falling out of time and space into long twisting tunnels on a journey that had no end. The Doctor had no idea how long this lasted - the normal experience of time does not exist in the vortex – but once again, as suddenly as it had started, the distortion ceased, and everything returned to normality – or as near to normality as was possible.

The General was standing up, supporting himself against the side of the vehicle, from which they had evidently been thrown. Nearby, the TARDIS lay on its side in the middle of the road. One of the soldiers was lying on the ground, a gibbering wreck, and in the distance the sound of screams could be heard. Not only that, flames were flickering on the skyline, and clouds of smoke billowed up. The General turned to his driver. “Get us to the Pyramid, quick!” he yelled. 

Was it alive, the Doctor wondered as they approached it. There was in principle no reason why it should not be. But what sort of life-form it was, what powers it had, and more importantly, whether it was a rational being – those questions had no answers. Well, he thought, now was the time to find some. He was about to ask for the TARDIS to be brought down, when he noticed a figure lying near the Pyramid’s base. He approached, and saw the last person he expected.

“Good grief, it’s Susan! What in the world is she doing here? Oh, why won’t that foolish child ever do as I say? Why won’t she learn to think like an adult?” He bent to examine her. There were no obvious injuries, but she was lying perfectly motionless, and made no response to any stimulus. She was apparently in some sort of trance.

“We must get help for Susan at once,” he proclaimed.

“And who is Susan?” asked the General.

“My granddaughter, Sir. She clearly needs help, so may I suggest….”

“Just a moment. You’ve got something to do for me, first.”

The Doctor’s patience with this arrogant swaggerer finally ran out. He marched over to him and gave him a jab in the chest that was more powerful than might have been expected. “How dare you, Sir? Are you going to tell me to abandon my own granddaughter….?”

“No, our guns are going to tell you that, Doctor,” replied the General. His men were now pointing them straight at the Doctor. The effect of this was quite the opposite of what might have been expected.

“You blustering imbecile!” the Doctor roared. “How do you suppose you’ll ever find out what’s going on here if you kill me? You certainly aren’t capable of it yourselves. And I won’t help you until we get Susan to safety. It’s quite the Mexican stand-off isn’t it? So make your mind up now.”

“Perhaps I can make it up for him,” a cool voice said. The Doctor looked round and was delighted to see it was Qoraq, accompanied by soldiers himself. Tekwe, feeling safe now, drew his own gun. Nargel glared at his subordinate with contempt.

“Of course. I think I always knew you were a traitor.”

“It’s not me who’s the traitor, Sir,” Qoraq replied calmly. “There’s no-one on Derva more loyal to the old ways. But let’s leave aside who’s the traitor for now. I suppose you realize there’s a tele-screen crew on its way here now.”

“Why should….?”

“Didn’t you experience what just happened? It’s the most serious one yet. Half the city is in ruins. We don’t know how many deaths yet, but it’s considerable. People will want answers. You’d better put your best politician’s act on, and pretend you can give them - Sir. ” Their eyes met. Neither was bothering to conceal the contempt they felt for the other any more. “In the meantime, we can get the Doctor’s granddaughter to safety.”

Leaving his men to keep Nargel’s men covered, Qoraq took the Doctor aside. “I went to Zarvil’s earlier,” he said. “They told me where you had gone, and that Susan had run off. I thought I’d take the precaution of bringing a squad with me. We’ll get Susan to hospital immediately. You can go back to the Councilman’s home. For the moment, I’ll pretend I don’t know anything more about the General than I’ve seen here. We’d all still like to avoid a scandal, and resolve this without violence.”  
“Thank you very much, young man, but as long as I know that Susan is safe, there is something I need to do here. I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

“As you wish. She’ll be safe with my men, they’re all hand-picked and can be trusted.” He gave orders for Susan to be taken away, and then settled down to keep an eye on his superior. 

The Doctor approached the Pyramid carefully. Was it just the fact that he was seeing it in darkness, or was there something subtly different about it? It seemed larger than the last time he had been there. He also got the distinct impression that there was some sort of crack in the structure. He didn’t quite see this – it was just somehow there, on the edge of perception. Perhaps his imagination was running away with him. He put it aside: he had a job to do.

He took off the ring with the large blue stone that he habitually wore. It was not, of course, a simple item of jewellery, any more than any artifact from his own planet was entirely as it seemed. He held it against the outer shell – what he was coming to think of as the outer shell – of the Pyramid, and then nodded. He returned to the TARDIS and sought out the doors. They were not obvious to observers but the Doctor knew where they were. He found the lock and held the ring against it for a while. After a short period of studying it, he put it back on his finger.

“Well, what was all that about?” General Nargel snarled.

“What that was about, was the fact that this ring - and don't even think of asking questions about it because you won't get any answers - and the outer shell of my TARDIS, consist of the same sort of material. The ring will respond to anything else of the same substance. It’s as I thought – the Pyramid and the outer shell of the TARDIS are made of the same thing – the raw stuff of matter.”

“And what does that tell us?”

“It tells us that you may not be so wrong in your conjecture that we – I – may be able to communicate with the Pyramid. If that is possible, it must be done. This thing may be able to destroy your solar system. We must stop that if possible.”

“Oh yes. Yes, of course. We must do that,” replied the General softly.

“And now, Sir, will you kindly permit me to rejoin my granddaughter?” Without waiting for permission, the Doctor strode off.

* * *

“They said they could find nothing physically wrong with Susan at the hospital,” Giljir said, “so they sent her home, with instructions to bring her back, if anything happened.” The Doctor and Tekwe had returned to Zarvil’s home, and together with their hosts, were gathered around a comfortable bed where Susan lay oblivious to the world. 

“As you can imagine, the hospitals are all full tonight,” Zarvil added. “And Nargel has just been on screen, ranting about alien invasion and atomic weapons again.”

“How can the man lie so blatantly? He knows everything he says is untrue.” Tekwe shook his head in bafflement.

“He does. And what, may I ask, are you going to do about that reprobate?” the Doctor asked. 

“Well, at the moment, what can we do?” said Zarvil. “He has broken none of our laws so far – unless you would like to press charges for kidnapping?”

“Ah, I see what you mean,” said the Doctor. “That might not be the best idea, all in all.” He sat down beside Susan on the bed. “She appears to be in a very deep coma,” he reflected. He sat down beside her and pressed his fingers to her temples. He remained very still for a while, a look of intense concentration on his face. Finally he looked up. “I’m only getting a very faint telepathic trace from Susan,” he said. “I can hardly access her thoughts at all. Something else is present in her mind – or is her mind present somewhere else? She seems to be in contact with some other intelligence.”


	8. Chapter 8

“Another intelligence? Do you mean…?” Tekwe asked.

“Well, if that Pyramid thing is alive, it’s the only possible candidate, isn’t it? Unless you know of some other alien intelligence on your planet, hmmm?”

“You say it’s made of the same sort of substance as your TARDIS,” said Zarvil. “But isn’t your TARDIS a machine, a constructed thing?”

The Doctor hesitated. He was not entirely sure how to answer this. While the TARDIS was not strictly speaking alive, it was not simply a machine either. These people would have no framework within which to understand the principles underlying the TARDIS, so he searched for an explanation that would be acceptable. 

“Well, machines and living things must all obey the same basic laws of physics,” he said. “Do you have factories on this planet where machines make things like vehicles on conveyor belts, hmmm?” Zarvil nodded. “Well, the structural principle that underlies the robotic arm that puts the pieces together on the conveyor belt, is the same principle that underlies the elbow joint in your arm. Now, on my world, TARDISes are not built but grown from the basic stuff of matter. There is nothing in principle that would stop the same process from occurring as a natural phenomenon, though I have never heard of it before. The question is, what is it doing here? And what does it want?”

An aide entered the room. “There are telescreen people outside Sir,” he said. “They want a statement from you about the night’s events. And an emergency session of the Council has been called for later today, to discuss the situation.” 

The Councilman sighed. “I suppose I’d better speak to them. I must try to calm the public’s fears. I’ll be away for most of the day at the meeting, Doctor. I hope Susan is recovered by the time I get back.”

* * * 

Susan was still wandering in the strange labyrinth of whatever was the mind of the creature she had made contact with, still receiving the messages that were not spoken but which she could understand anyway. 

“You are young,” the mind seemed to say.

“Yes,” she answered. “I am still a child by the standards of my own people. What do you want from me? Please, there’s no possible harm I could do you. Please let me go!”

“Indeed, there is little in you that I need. You may return to your body now.” There was the strange feeling of falling through a tunnel again, and Susan began to feel she returning to reality. She could hear voices around her – one of them sounded like her grandfathers’s – and then she was aware that her eyelids felt as though they were stuck to her eyes. With an effort, she forced them open. Concerned faces loomed over her, and there was her grandfather at last!

* * *

“It seemed to want something from me,” Susan said when she was fully recovered, and able to answer the Doctor’s questions. “I’m not sure what, but I think I didn’t have what it wanted, and so it released me – my mind, that is. It was eerie – some intelligence that was totally alien. I couldn’t understand what it wanted.”

The Doctor tapped his fingers together. “But you were able to communicate with it, child?”

“Yes.”

“That’s a hopeful sign. If we can communicate with it, we may be able to make it understand the threat it poses to this planet.”

“Suppose it doesn’t care?” Giljir asked. “Suppose it thinks of us like we think of insects. We don’t worry about swatting insects. It may see us like that.”

“In that case we shall have to think of some other way of dealing with it, young woman! For the time being, if it is possible to communicate with it on a rational level, we must try that.”

There was the sound of shouting outside. Giljir and Tekwe jumped up. There was more noise – what sounded like a couple of gunshots - and then Councilman Zarvil was pushed into the room, with a couple of armed soldiers behind him. A young woman was with them – the young woman the Doctor had met earlier at the safe house.

“Councilman…. what’s going on? What are these people doing here? ” Giljir asked, trying to conceal the fear she felt.

“I’m afraid your precious Council isn’t deciding things on this planet any more,” Saren said in a contemptuous tone. “They spent most of the emergency session arguing, and were completely unable to come up with any serious ideas about what to do about the disasters. So finally, the military decided they had to take matters into their own hands. From now on, the Council is relieved of authority, and my superior General Nargel is acting Head of State.”

“You mean there’s been a coup,” Tekwe said. 

“If you like. But if the politicians can’t do anything about the gravest emergency our planet has ever faced, then more practical people must act.”

“No doubt,” Zarvil said bitterly. “Forgive me if I suspect this coup has been a long time in the planning. It’s not a just a reaction to the immediate situation, is it?”

She looked at him for a long time. “You don’t remember me, do you, Professor?” she finally asked.

“Your face is slightly familiar. I just can’t remember......”

“You don’t remember when I was your student and you were a Professor at the High Academy?”

Recognition finally dawned. “Yes of course. Your name’s Saren, isn’t it? I remember, I was your tutor when you were doing postgraduate research on the dawn of Dervan civilization. My dear young woman, what in the world made you an associate of a scoundrel like Nargel?”

“What do you think? Power. Never mind that. It was thanks to you, that I found what gave us the clue to what’s happening on our planet now.”

“Me?” Zarvil was puzzled.

“Yes. Do you remember that course you taught on the Scroll of Zorax? You told us that it referred to an even more ancient record, written by Zorax himself – the Chronicle of Zorax, the oldest written record of our civilization.”

“But the Chronicle of Zorax is just a myth. There’s no evidence it ever existed,” Zarvil said.

“You’re wrong. It exists. It was discovered a couple of centuries ago by some archaeologists who couldn’t make out what it was all about, so they threw it into the storerooms of the Academy and forgot about it. From there, it managed to make its way into the Government Archives, without anyone realizing its significance. And it was there that I found it.”

Zarvil was still puzzled. “But you couldn’t have translated it,” he opined. “The language must be even more archaic than…”

“You underestimate your own abilities as a teacher, Professor,” she laughed. “But we can talk about it later – if you get the chance. In the meantime, another old acquaintance is here to see you.” She gestured to the door, as General Nargel entered. 

“Good to see you again, old friend,” he sneered. “Oh, and the Doctor’s here too. That’s very convenient, because I still need your help, and I think you will help me now. Didn’t you say this girl is your granddaughter?” He pointed his gun towards Susan’s head. “I think you will help me now.”


	9. Chapter 9

The Doctor gripped his lapels and glared at the General, showing a bravado he did not really feel. 

“Your capacity for rational thought hasn’t improved since the last time we met, hmmmm? Do you really think you’ll be able to persuade me to help you in any way whatsoever if you threaten my granddaughter? Furthermore, you need Susan here alive. She is able to communicate with this creature.”

“Is this true?” the General snapped, turning to Susan. 

“Yes, I….I think so,” the girl replied. “That is, while I was unconscious, I think I was in contact with some sort of mind. I don’t know what else it could have been, other than the Pyramid.”

“Then it is an intelligent being. I can make a deal with it.” 

“A deal?” roared the Doctor. “What makes you think it will want to make a deal with you? Don’t you realize the sort of power it has? You and all your species may be nothing more than insects to it.” 

“Well, we’ll establish that when we know more about what it wants,” replied the General. 

“So you haven’t made a deal with it already?” Tekwe asked. “You’re not causing these disasters in collusion with it?”

“How would I do that? No, it was just that when I learned it was a living thing, and that it was causing the problems, I realized that I could use it to my advantage – at first, just to win support for my weapons programme.”

“Oh, yes!” Tekwe laughed. “I wonder what it will think when it learns that you wanted to obliterate it with nuclear weapons?”

The General sneered. “You never really thought I meant that, did you?”

“No.” Tekwe shook his head sadly . “All you wanted was an excuse to turn our space programme to military use, and develop the sort of weapons we’ve never had in all our history.”

“I think I’m beginning to have a better opinion of your intelligence. That was my original aim. But believe me, I have much bigger ambitions now.”

“May I see this record that you claim was written by the founder of your civilization?” the Doctor asked, hoping to buy time. “If we understand a little more about this being, we may be able to communicate with it better.”

The General considered this. “I don’t see why not,” he decided. “You and the girl will come with me. You too, Zarvil. I want to see you squirm you see that I could do what you couldn’t do. You come too, Saren. You others,” – he gestured at Tekwe and Giljir – “will stay here. Don’t get any ideas about trying to escape. My men will have you under observation at all times.” He signaled to Saren and together with their prisoners, they left the room.

* * * 

“It’s incredible, quite incredible,” Councilman Zarvil said. “A record written by Zorax himself. To think it was lying there in the Archives all this time, and no-one realized it.” He looked at the decaying, discoloured old scroll with wonder.

“It’s lucky that you and I were friends once,” General Nargel said. “If we hadn’t been, I’d never have met this talented student of yours. And never found out that this thing existed.” The Councilman looked at his former student sadly. “Why, Saren? Why didn’t you stay in academia? You had a brilliant career ahead of you….”

“Well, basically, there’s more money and more power this way,” she smirked. “Now, let’s get on with reading it.” Zarvil began, while the Doctor and Susan looked on with interest.

* * *

“…..and on that day, while we were in the valley,” the scroll continued, “ suddenly a brilliant light filled the heavens. It was brighter than the sun, and the sound of its roaring was like no sound that had ever been heard before. It came down with fire about it, and the ground shook all over the valley and far beyond. Great flames leapt up around, and for a while, we feared that the whole world would burn up. But after the flames around it died down, some of the braver of our company dared to approach it. Hot it was still, and a great round dome like a great egg.”

Zarvil looked up. “That doesn’t sound like the Pyramid,” he said. “It’s not a dome.”

“I know,” Nargel replied. “Please continue.”

Zarvil started reading again. “Afraid, we fled from the valley, and none dared approach the place of the landfall…” Zarvil shook his head. “I can’t make any of this out. Ah, it continues here.” He went on. “…… the land shook and the sky was dark. Some days the sun was almost blotted out from the sky, some days it filled the sky like a great red eye….” 

“As I told you,” General Nargel said. “It’s all happened before.”

“But it didn’t continue,” Zarvil said. “The scroll goes on.” He continued reading. “….but eventually peace returned to our world. And when it did, we approached the place of the landfall again, trembling and with much fear. There we saw a great - I’m sorry, I can’t translate this word – a great something had - another word I can’t translate – in that place.”

“You may not be able to translate those words,” Saren said, “but I can.” 

“How?” the old man asked. “They appear only once in the Scroll of Zorax – which until you discovered this was our oldest historical document.”

“You underestimate your own skills as a teacher, Professor,” Saren replied. “Didn’t you always tell us to look at context when we came across a word we couldn’t understand in ancient documents? Look at the other words it occurs with, you said. That will give you a clue as to what it means. Now, this word,” – she pointed to the first word Zarvil had been unable to translate – “is quite common in this document. Its context always indicates that it’s a verb, and it always occurs in connection with things like crops, trees, plants, harvests, that sort of thing, but also in connection with children becoming adults. That enables us to narrow down its meaning – grow.”

“And only living things grow,” interrupted General Nargel. 

“What about the second word?” Councilman Zarvil asked. 

“Well, look at this glyph,” Saren went on. “This turns a verb into a noun – you don’t need me to tell you that. So we need to look for verbs that have the same meaning as the other glyphs. Again, if we use context we can find them. The sequence of glyphs is mostly used in connection with movement – dancing, the movement of the stars across the sky, that sort of thing. It’s also used to describe certain patterns inscribed on stones. Finally, it’s used to describe the pattern that leaves form when they grow up the stem of a plant. Now, what pattern would that be, Professor?”

“A spiral, I suppose,” the old man replied.

“Exactly. So the verb means ‘to spiral’. Add the glyph that makes it a noun, and you have ‘spiralling’. So now we can translate the passage: ‘There we saw a great spiralling had grown in that place.’ And what shape is the Pyramid? It’s a conical spiral.”

* * * 

Qoraq had of course been placed under arrest as soon as the coup plotters started to act. He was now sitting in his cell, wondering how he could make his escape. What would he do after that? No doubt many of the soldiers remained loyal, but after the day’s events, he had no way of knowing who he could trust.  
There would certainly be a surveillance device hidden in the cell, and even if he could disable that, and jump the guards outside the cell, the rest of the military prison would be full of them. He would never get out alive. He would have to think of another way. 

He looked at the guards more carefully. One of them was known to him, and had been at the Pyramid during the last time of chaos. That gave him an idea. He recalled the extraordinary stillness of the girl Susan when she had been in a trance at that time. Could he imitate that in such a way that it would fool his captors? It was a risk, but it was his only chance. He lay down on his bunk and began to slow his breathing down to a level where it was just sufficient to keep him alive, and to relax the muscles so that he appeared to be in a death-like trance. It took time, but eventually he reached the stage where he seemed to be floating outside his body. The surveillance device in the cell must have alerted the guards outside, because very soon one of them entered.

“Looks like he’s out for the count,” one of them said.

“He’s playing a game,” the other opined. “How stupid can you be to think you’ll get out this way?” He gave the prostrate form a harsh blow with his gun.

Roll over, Qoraq thought. Don’t let the muscles show any resistance. That’s what happens in trance. He was not sure he could manage it, but it must have fooled his captors. “Hey, he really is out,” said the first guard. “And you know, I think I’ve seen something like this before. That girl, at the Pyramid, just before everything went pear-shaped again – she was like this.”

His companion did not look too happy at this. “You think it’s about to start happening again?” 

“No idea. We’d better get him checked out though. Contact the General, and arrange a transport to take him to the military hospital. Just in case there’s some connection.”

Keep your breathing to a minimum, Qoraq told himself. Don’t move a muscle. So far, so good.

As he had guessed, escape was going to be a lot easier when there was only one person to overpower. He had managed to maintain the illusion of trance so well that his guard was hardly even taking any notice of him. Now it was time to reverse the illusion. He began to move his consciousness back to a more normal state of awareness. When he felt he was ready, he began to go through the motions of waking up. What would be suitable to attract his guards attention? Something that played on the fears of his people, he decided.

“The sun,” he murmured as though emerging from a dream. “The sun……turning red again……”

The guard bent down to look at him. Quick as a flash, Qoraq grabbed him and smashed his head against the side of the bed. He grabbed his gun, and took the precaution of taking his identification badge too. The sound must have alerted the driver, as he started slowing down. All the better, that gave Qoraq more of a chance. He opened the back door, threw himself out, and rolled along the road. He had escaped near a chaos of collapsed buildings from the recent disturbance. He heard shots and shouting behind him, but in that maze of rubble he had the advantage. His pursuers soon turned back.

* * *

“So it was obvious that the Pyramid had come here from space, but grew here, it was not constructed, “ the General said. “Add to that, the fact that the disturbances we are experiencing now had happened before and it all became clear to me.”

“Well, it’s not clear to me,” Susan interjected. “This thing, you say, fell to your planet like a meteorite and embedded itself here. Then there was a series of disturbances, which soon ended. The creature did nothing for ten thousand years or more, and now the disturbances have started again. Why? What sort of creature is inert for thousands of years, and then suddenly starts to act again? All this only tells us about its origins ….. I still don’t see what it is.”

“All very good questions, my dear,” the Doctor said. “What sort of creature would show a pattern of behavior like that?” He tapped his fingers, thinking. Then a sudden inspiration hit him. “Just a moment. Let me see that scroll, young woman!” He had almost snatched it out of Saren’s hands before she could respond. He had suddenly realized what could account for the Pyramid’s subtle change in size, and the crack he thought he had seen in it earlier. “I think our clue is here.” He read out again what Zarvil had read out earlier. “Hot it was still, and a great round dome like a great egg.” He grasped his lapels and looked around at the assembled company with a look of triumph on his face. “An egg. That’s precisely what it is. An egg. When it landed here, it needed an influx of energy to start the growth process, and that accounts for the early disturbances. The creature inside it has been gestating for ten thousand years. And now the gestation period is over. Another stage in the life cycle begins. The egg is about to hatch.”


	10. Chapter 10

“An egg,” breathed the General. “And something has gestated in it for ten thousand years. I wonder how long it lives.”

“Who knows?” said the Doctor. “Perhaps a million years. More to the point, if that’s an egg, what sort of creature will hatch from it?”

“As long as it does my bidding, I don’t really care too much,” growled the General.

“And you think you can force it to do your bidding?” the Doctor roared. “A being that could destroy your whole solar system?”

“If it can destroy our solar system, it can destroy others too.” 

“So that’s your ambition,” Zarvil said sadly. “Ruling this planet isn’t enough for you. You want to have entire solar systems at your mercy.”

“Yes. Once I learned from the Doctor what was actually happening – that these disturbances were time distortions - I realized how I could use it to my advantage.”

The Doctor sighed. He had come across this sort of insanity many times before. There was no point in trying to reason with such people – if you could reason with them, they would not be as they were in the first place. The only way to deal with them was to oppose them.

“I suppose you realize,” he said, “that last night’s disturbance won’t be the last. The creature hasn’t hatched yet, and the next time it will probably be a great deal worse. How do you propose to deal with that, hmmm?”

“You said that this girl can communicate with it.” He pointed his gun at Susan again. “She’ll do that for me now.”

“No!” Susan shrank away, terrified. “No, I don’t want to. The last time it happened I felt…. I felt as though it wanted something from me. I felt as though….I was being swallowed up.”

“Interesting.” The Doctor tapped his chin thoughtfully. “You said you felt you were travelling through the vortex, but we found your body outside. Only your mind had entered it. I wonder…no, it’s too absurd for words. And yet…. stranger things have happened in the universe.” 

All this was just so much time-wasting to the General. “We’re going to try and make a deal with that thing. All of you, come with me. Saren, keep a gun trained on them. I don’t want any attempts at escape.”

“My pleasure!” she said with a smile.

* * *  
Qoraq considered that he had been lucky so far. He had managed to evade pursuit, and had made his way to Councilman Zarvil’s house without too much trouble. The house was, as he had guessed, under close guard. He looked at his fake ID. He only hoped that it would fool the guards around the house, and that none of them knew him.

He approached and drew a deep breath. It was now or never. “Prisoners are to be interrogated,” he barked, flashing the fake ID. “Orders of General Nargel. Please take me to them now.” The young soldier, who he did not recognize, nodded and led him through the house, into the library, where Tekwe and Giljir were still under close guard. “I’m to interrogate these prisoners,” he said in clipped military tones. “I can do it alone. You may go.” He spoke with the authority of command, and the younger men snapped to attention. As soon as they had left the room, Tekwe spoke.

“We were wondering what had happened to you,” he said. “Thank goodness you’re still alive. The question is, now that you’re here, how do we escape?”

How indeed? Qoraq’s heart sank as he realized he had simply exchanged one prison for another.

* * *

The General and his group had returned to the Pyramid. This was a great relief to the soldiers on guard, who had no desire to be too close to it. They happily moved away to let the party access the lower terraces. The Doctor looked at it carefully. As he had guessed, a few more cracks, almost imperceptible, had appeared in the structure. The hatching would be soon. Susan looked nervous.

“Grandfather,” she said, clutching his arm. “If it’s made from the same sort of material as the TARDIS, it’s possible that it’s bigger inside than outside.”

“Yes, the thought had occurred to me, child. So the creature that hatches from it may be ……unimaginable – unimaginable! And that fool of a General imagines he can control it!”

He turned to the General. “If my surmise is correct,” he said, “it may not be possible to communicate with it unless there is another time disturbance.”

“Oh, and why is that?” the General snorted.

“Not long ago, that young man who works for your rival here asked me a very interesting question. If it’s alive, what does it eat? Well, I think I may know the answer. It feed on dimensions. Yes! This creature is a dimension-eater.”

“And how would that affect communication with it?”  
“In the last disturbance, Susan felt she was in vortex, being drawn into the thing. However, only her mind was affected, not her body. Now, the mind exists in the fractal dimensions of the brain…..”

“Doctor!” Nargel raised his gun. “Don’t try and play games. If this is some sort of attempt to blind us with science…..”

“I assure you, Sir, it is not! But perhaps I should explain. I suppose you know that in any intelligent being, the brain consists of vast amounts of neural material folded up in a space much smaller than it would occupy if it was all stretched out. A fractal dimension is a measure of the complexity of the folding, in proportion to the size of the space it finds itself in. Telepathy, in species which have the ability, consists of the transference of information from one fractal dimension to another. This being, I guess, swallowed up the fractal dimensions of Susan’s brain, which led to her feeling she was inside it, and then spat her out.”

“Must have found me pretty indigestible!” Susan giggled.

“Or perhaps you didn’t provide enough nourishment, my dear. No, I imagine a creature of this size would require far more. The space of an entire solar system for instance, and the time of billions of years. No wonder its hatching is causing so much trouble.”

“And if we don’t have much time before the next incident, you’d better get on with it, hadn’t you?” said the General.

The Doctor considered his options. He hoped that the creature was intelligent and could be reasoned with. Even if that was the case, how could it hatch without destroying the planet? The only other alternative was to stop the hatching – and in the case of an intelligent being, that would be murder. 

He came to a decision. There was no question of allowing Susan to communicate with it again. He would have to make the attempt himself. How could this be done without another time disturbance? 

“How would creatures like this communicate amongst themselves?” he mused. “Surely they can’t create major distortions in space-time every time one meets another.” He reflected. Probably such beings were telepathic, and communicated like other telepathic species – by a mingling of the fractal dimensions. 

He looked at the fractal patterns on the outside of the shell. He wondered that he hadn’t realized it before. Such things were an obvious sign that the being was alive. Perhaps it would be possible to communicate with it through them. 

He turned to the General. “I will attempt to communicate with it,” he said. “I can’t guarantee results, but I think you’ll agree that anything is better than having your world destroyed.”

“You’d better get on with it, then.” The General pointed his gun towards Susan. It was not a gesture that the Doctor found ambiguous.

He placed his hands on one of the fractal patterns on the outside of the shell. He had no idea if his scheme would work. Suppose the fractal dimensions of the patterns were not those which made telepathy possible? Well, the risk had to be taken. 

He allowed his mind to enter those ever-replicating, swirling, twisting patterns. To become one with them. To blend with them so that they were him and he was them.

For a while, nothing happened. Then, the Doctor collapsed. Susan gasped, and was held back by Zarvil. The Doctor was experiencing what Susan had experienced the previous night. There was a brief moment of unconsciousness. Then he awoke to the sensation of another presence connected to his mind. 

“Who are you?” it seemed to say.


	11. Chapter 11

“You are not of this world,” the presence said – the Doctor experienced it as ‘saying’. “You are like the girl I encountered. Such a little thing. So little to absorb.”

“You are right. I am a little thing, compared to you. But I would like to know about you. What are you? Where do you come from?”

“We do not come from any planet. Our internal structure is formed from the dimensions of space - time, and the stuff of matter held together in a structured form. Our home is interstellar space, where we roam freely between the stars. But we must lay our eggs on planets. Only there do we find the appropriate environment to to gestate.”

“And you must absorb dimensions to gain nourishment and energy?”

“Yes,” the presence replied. “Our preference is for the inner dimensions of time, but if they are lacking, others will suffice.”

“Yes. I noticed when it happened that it was the inner dimensions of time that were most affected. And do you digest these dimensions?”

“Not totally. We absorb some of them into our structure, and others we keep until we have taken sufficient energy from them. Then we release them back whence they came.”

“Why does your feeding affect the sun of this planet?”

“Near the sun, the gravity is strongest, and where the gravity is strongest, the curvature of space-time is at its greatest. The dimensions near a massive body are a greater source of nourishment for us.”

“But by devouring the dimensions near the sun, you could destroy the entire solar system,” the Doctor said. “And this is a world with intelligent life.”

“My mother did not know that when she laid her egg here,” the presence stated. “But I have come to know it.”

“Does it bother you?” the Doctor asked.

“I do not wish to destroy this world,” said the creature. “But the time of hatching is very near. I cannot stop it now.”

The Doctor stopped to think. It began to occur to him that there might be a way to let the creature hatch without endangering the planet. “I believe you have something of mine,” he said. “My TARDIS. Its internal dimensions disappeared when I arrived here. I guess you have something to do with it.”

“Ah, yes,” the being answered. “A device with inner dimensions larger than the outer. They were not enough to satisfy my hunger – yet I sensed there was something very powerful at the heart of this structure.”

“You were right,” the Doctor said. “My TARDIS is powered by a mini -black hole – a star where the gravity is so great, that not even light can escape from its surface. In the TARDIS, the gravitational effects of the black hole are kept in check by equally powerful forces – but released from them, the curvature of space-time around the black hole would surely be enough to give you the energy you need.”

The presence of the being seemed to draw back. Then it was in his mind again. 

“My race memory tells me that others of our kind have encountered such entities. What do you propose?”

“Can you give me back the interior of my TARDIS?” said the Doctor. “I will take it a little ahead in time, not much, but enough for it not to affect this planet. Then, I will disable the forces that control the black hole, and you may absorb some of the space-time around it. The massive curvature around the black hole should supply you with more than you need. You need not attack the gravity well around the sun. Afterwards, when you are free to roam in interstellar space, I’ll expect it back. You will have many other sources of nourishment then. The whole universe is full of stars with uninhabited solar systems.”

The being seemed to consider this. “The suggestion has merit,” it finally said. “Very well. Return to you own space-time bubble, and I will return the interior of your device. But be quick. I cannot delay the hatching much longer.”

There was a sensation of falling through the vortex again, and then the Doctor opened his eyes to the light of the sun. Susan ran to him and hugged him. The General glared at him with cold eyes. “Well?” he asked.

* * * 

The Doctor had explained the situation, and what he intended to do, to his companions. “Now, my TARDIS is still be around here, isn’t it?” he said. “Let’s see if the inner dimensions have been returned.”

They had indeed. The Doctor and Susan entered, along with Nargel, Zarvil and Saren, and had the familiar experience of seeing the shocked expressions on their faces at the sight of the TARDIS interior.

“How can something like this fit into that structure outside?” the General asked.

“Because it is in a different space-time bubble, mapped onto an exterior space-time bubble,” the Doctor snapped. “This is not the time for lessons, Sir. I have an incredibly dangerous operation to perform. I must release the black hole at the centre of the TARDIS from the force-field controlling it, and jettison it precisely into the interior of the dimension-eater. I will have to turn the TARDIS over to an emergency power source for the duration.” 

“A black hole?” Nargel asked. “That’s a star that has gravity so strong even light can’t escape from it, isn’t it?” Dervan civilization was just beginning to understand such concepts.

“Quite so, quite so,” the Doctor said impatiently, absorbed as he was in manipulating a number of complex controls. “Please don’t interrupt me.”

“And could you, with this black hole, capture that creature, once it’s hatched, and hold it prisoner?”

“I suppose so. If it was trapped on the event horizon it could find it very difficult to escape. It couldn’t consume all the space-time around the black hole.” 

“I see.” The General nodded to himself. He said nothing more. 

“Now,” the Doctor said. “I suggest you all go outside. What I am attempting to do is far too dangerous to risk anyone else. Yes, that means you too, Susan,” he said as the girl started to protest. “All of you – outside. With luck, this will not take too long.”

As soon as they were outside, the dematerialization process began, and the TARDIS shifted a few seconds into the future. Inside, the Doctor was concentrating hard. It would be necessary to disable the force-field around the black hole and jettison it at precisely the same moment. Furthermore, the co-ordinates had to be exact. Mentally crossing his fingers behind his back, he pressed the appropriate control – and held his breath.

It worked. The black hole was jettisoned and entered the precise space-time co-ordinates that the Doctor had programmed. As soon as it happened, the Doctor dematerialized the TARDIS and returned to the outskirts of the Pyramid, where the others were waiting for him. 

“I would advise getting as far away from here as possible,” he said. “It would probably not be a good idea to be to close to this creature when it hatches.”

They all ran as far into the valley that surrounded the Pyramid as they could. The Doctor’s advice had not been mistaken. The outer shell that had been the Pyramid began to flicker in and out of vision. The space-time around the structure was being affected, but as far as the Doctor could sense, nothing else was. Then the outer shell undulated a few times, broke into myriads of tiny scintillating pieces , and vanished into the hidden dimensions of space-time.

What took its place was enormous. Susan had been quite right to suppose that the interior of the shell was based on TARDIS principles. Vast as the Pyramid had been, the creature that emerged from it dwarfed it by a thousand times. As it emerged into four-dimensional space-time, its massive form reached up to the sky and stretched from horizon to horizon. It was, as far as the Doctor could see, like a gigantic cephalopod, but with more tentacles. However, it was difficult to make this out due to the giant bulk of the creature blotting out the sun, and plunging the area into almost total darkness as far as the eye could see. 

“Floodlights!” the General called. His men hurried to obey, terrified as they were. With their help, the astonished observers could see the dimension-eater rising up from the surface of the planet, filling the sky.

“It’s away to its home in interstellar space,” the Doctor said.

“And let’s hope it never returns,” Zarvil murmured.

“Oh, it wasn’t malevolent,” the Doctor said. “It simply acted normally, given its life cycle, and I expect creatures like us hardly even registered on its consciousness. But with a whole universe to roam in, I doubt it will be back.”

You may be mistaken in that, General Nargel thought.

* * * 

Qoraq, Tekwe and Giljir were still trying to figure out a plan of escape when a terrible darkness suddenly filled the sky. There were screams from around the building, and a few shots were heard – probably soldiers firing in a panic. For a moment, the three captives were overwhelmed by it, too. It was Giljir who realized that it gave them a chance. She ran to one of the desks and found a torch, and hurried the others to the window. “Quickly!” she whispered. “This is our best chance – there’ll be fewer guards round the back. Just follow me.”

They made their way out of the window and into the garden. There were fewer soldiers there, but now that the initial shock of the sudden descent of darkness had worn off, they were setting up lights, and getting organized again. The three escapees crept carefully across the garden, staying close to the trees and bushes, and keeping the light of the torch directed to the ground. Nonetheless, weak as it was, one of the soldiers noticed it as they were about to climb over the wall at the back. He called out, and immediately a floodlight shone directly upon them, followed by shots. 

“Over the wall, quick!” Qoraq ordered. He took a shot at the floodlight and blasted it out of action. There were more shots, which echoed against the wall, and he returned fire, taking aim as well as he could in the deepening darkness. He lowered himself over the wall, and checked on his two companions.

“Is everybody alright here?” he asked.  
Tekwe nodded. “Yes. Luckily they didn’t manage to hit us.”

“Then let’s get away from here.” Already he could hear the sounds of booted feet running across the garden, and more shots being fired. “Make for the Pyramid.” It was not unreasonable to expect that the centre of the action would be there. As they fled, he hoped he had not killed anyone. It was not pleasant to have to fire on former colleagues. But there would be time to worry about that later – or so he hoped. 

* * *

“Now, I must look at my TARDIS,” the Doctor said, as the dark vision rose into the sky. “The emergency power source won’t last long, and I have to hope that creature has kept its promise and returned the black hole.”

He clambered up the hill, followed by the others. The TARDIS was still where he had materialized it, and had not been affected by the extraordinary events of the hatching. He entered, together with Susan and Zarvil, and immediately flicked some controls on the console.

“Yes, it all seems to be in order,” he said. He turned to Councilman Zarvil who was still looking around in wonder, not yet having overcome his astonishment at the TARDIS. “As I said, the creature was not malevolent, and it kept its word. I think your planet will be safe now.” The Doctor held out his hand and for a moment, Zarvil was puzzled. Then he realized it was some sort of parting ritual, and took the Doctor’s hand in his, smiling. The Doctor returned to the console. “Now, I think it’s time we were on our way,” he said. “Make your farewells, Susan, my child.”

“Not yet.” The Doctor had forgotten about the General, who had now entered with Saren. Both of them held guns and both guns were pointed directly at him. “I think you have something to do for me first.”


	12. Chapter 12

“Do something for you?” the Doctor roared. “Are you mad, Sir? You’ve just seen what that creature is like. Do you still persist in believing you can force it to your will?”

“With this device, yes. You told me it was possible to trap that creature on the event horizon of the black hole, Doctor, so that’s what you’ll do now. I’m taking command of this ship. With this, and the help of that creature, I could rule the universe!” The General had a glint of madness in his eyes which was not unfamiliar to the Doctor.

“You benighted fool!” the Doctor continued. “How do you propose to take command of the ship? The simplest principles of its operation are far beyond your wildest imagination. And I certainly won’t help you.”

“Oh, but you will, Doctor. These two here are my guarantee of that.” He indicated Susan. “Saren, take hold of the girl. I’ll take care of this old fool.” The young woman grabbed Susan and pointed her gun to her head, while General Nargel did the same for Zarvil. “Now, Doctor, isn’t it time you were on the trail of that thing?”

The Doctor had no intention of doing what the General said. He had mentioned the thing as a theoretical possibility, but was not at all sure that it could be done in practice. There was no point in attempting to convince the man of that, though. He had clearly tipped over the edge into madness. The only alternative was another bluff. 

“In order to do what you ask, I will have to materialize the TARDIS around the creature,” he said. “To do that, I will have to alter the internal dimensions, because of its size.” This was all nonsense, but the Doctor knew that General Nargel wouldn’t understand any of it. “Now, if you would kindly let me get to work.”

His plan was simple. It was possible to create a state of temporal grace in the TARDIS, which ensured that no weapons could be fired in its interior. He had not had reason to use the temporal grace circuits for some time, but could soon activate them again. Once that was done, it would be possible to disarm Nargel and Saren, return them to their own place, and he and Susan could be on their way. He returned his attention to the console.

* * * 

The darkness was lifting as Qoraq, Giljir and Tekwe arrived at the hill where the Pyramid had once been. The gigantic dimension-eater was now leaving the planet’s atmosphere for its destination in interstellar space, but still dominated the sky.

“Just look at it!” Tekwe breathed. “Imagine that something could be that size!”

“Remarkable,” Giljir agreed, “but it doesn’t solve our problem. What are we going to do, now we’re here?”

“There’s that contraption – the one the Doctor called the TARDIS,” Tekwe said. “Do you think he’s a prisoner?” 

“There’s only one way to find out, ” Qoraq said. He drew his gun and the three companions crept towards the TARDIS.

In all the excitement, the Doctor had uncharacteristically not locked the door. Qoraq pushed it open and peeped gingerly inside. He gasped, and in that moment several things happened.

“You fools! What are you doing here?” the Doctor shouted. He had not yet finished setting up the state of temporal grace. The General and Saren, surprised by the commotion, looked towards the door and that gave Susan the opportunity to grab Saren’s arm and wrest the gun from her. Even as she did so, the General fired at the newcomers, only narrowly missing Qoraq. Then he turned on the Doctor, eyes burning. 

“Doctor, you lied to me!” he bellowed.

“I had nothing to do with the arrival of these people,” the Doctor retorted, but the General was in no mood for listening. “Now, your friends die!”

“No, I don’t think so.” Susan was holding the gun against Saren’s head. “Fire one shot and it’s this one who dies.” She nodded to the three newcomers, who came over and seized Saren. Then, after giving Tekwe her gun, she went to the console. First she closed the doors and then, without asking the Doctor’s permission, flicked the dematerialization control. There was a familiar wheezing, groaning sound, and the time rotor began to move. The TARDIS was in flight.

“What’s happening?” the General demanded. 

“We are now travelling in time and space,” the Doctor retorted, “thanks to the folly of my granddaughter here. Susan,” he whispered, “what were you thinking of? We are trapped here with a homicidal maniac, and could end up anywhere.” To his astonishment, she winked at him. “Look at the time-path indicator,” she said. He did so.

“According to this, we are following the path of that creature through space -time. Oh Susan, child, what have you done? This is precisely what that maniac wants.”

“I know. Now switch on the TARDIS telepathic circuits, grandfather.”

“Alright, what’s all this about?” the General asked. 

“Simple,” Susan replied. “You wanted to communicate with the creature, and through the TARDIS telepathic circuits, you can. You can tell it precisely what you want. Why don’t you try it now?”

All of a sudden the Doctor understood what Susan was trying to do. He immediately activated the telepathic circuits. An unearthly voice echoed through the console room. The circuits had converted the dimension-eater’s communication system into a system everyone could understand. All present heard the creature speaking to them in their own language.

“Well, Doctor,” it said. “What do you want of me now? Is it not enough that I have left the planet, as you asked.”

“It is enough for me,” the Doctor replied. “But this gentleman here has something to ask of you. Perhaps you should hear it.” For a moment, he felt the being probing his mind. “I sense more,” it said. “You are shielding your mind from me.”

“Perhaps,” said the Doctor. “But it is not me you have to do with. Ask this man here what he wants. He cannot shield his mind.”

There was a long silence The General looked remarkably uncomfortable as he felt the dimension-eater probing his mind. After a while it spoke.

“So. You wish to make alliance with me. For the conquest of solar systems without end. That is your ambition.”

“Yes!” the General shouted. “Together, think of what we could do. We would be invincible.”

“And what do you think of this, Doctor?”

“I think it is a very laudable ambition,” the Doctor replied. He felt the dimension-eater probing his mind again – this time with all barriers lowered – and then it spoke.

“Very well. If this being wishes to be my ally, it shall be. I shall join it at the heart of this device. It must move to that location.”

“Where is it?” asked the General.

“At the centre of the TARDIS,” the Doctor replied. “You must go there. Susan and I will show you the way. You others, remain here.” The others were quite happy to follow this instruction.

The Doctor, Susan and the General made their way through the labyrinth of corridors that led away from the console room. The deeper they penetrated into the heart of the TARDIS, the stronger the gravitational forces became. Eventually, they came to a plain white room where the strength of the forces was almost enough to push them back. 

“That is where you must stand,” the Doctor said. “At the centre of the room. The forces will attract the creature, and you will have it under your power.” He turned to Susan and whispered. “Be ready to run, child!”

The General moved to the centre of the room, his face alight with madness. His ambition was within reach! Surely nothing could stop him now. So absorbed was he in his dreams of conquest, that he didn’t even notice when the Doctor and Susan disappeared. He was still dreaming of the chaos he would inflict on the universe when the room vanished from the TARDIS, and he was swallowed up by the being he had thought he could subject to his will.

Back in the console room, the Doctor stopped to catch his breath. He could still sense the presence of the dimension-eater, and after a moment, its voice was heard again.

“Thank you, Doctor,” it said. “You have ridded me of a troublesome enemy, and provided some extra nourishment besides.”

“Yes, I guessed that if you could absorb the whole of the TARDIS interior, it would be child’s play to absorb only one room, especially given the forces at work there. I also guessed that you would be able to access his desires readily. But it’s my granddaughter here you should really thank.”

“Yes,” Susan said. “I realized that your recent absorption of the TARDIS core would mean that the TARDIS would automatically follow you if it took off without any other co-ordinates programmed. And as he was your enemy as well as ours, you were our best bet to deal with him.”

“Well, he has had his wish” Councilman Zarvil put it. “He is allied with you in a way he didn’t expect! But did you know what he wanted?”

“He had no power to shield his mind, like this Doctor here. As soon as I made contact with him, I knew what he wanted of me – that he wanted to make me his slave.”

“But surely creatures of our kind are like specks of dust compared to you,” Giljir said. She had been following the proceedings with fascination, and a great deal of awe.

“It is so. There was little harm he could have done me. But he could have greatly harmed your planet and perhaps many others. I will deal with him. There is little in him to absorb. I will release on some planet suitable for his kind when I approach one.”

“Well, make sure it’s uninhabited and with a nasty climate,” said Tekwe. “He’ll have plenty of opportunity to engage in his dreams of conquest there.” Everybody laughed, except Saren. Zarvil finally remembered her presence, and addressed her.

“As for you, Saren, I only hope you learn a lesson from this. You know, you could still have a great future ahead of you in academia, if you wish. Let us hope the rehabilitators can make you see sense when we hand you over to them.” She glared at him, and he shook his head sadly, remembering the young woman who had once been his student. Yet his world had just been saved from a terrible fate – perhaps it was possible for people too.

* * *

The TARDIS was back on Derva, and the Doctor and Susan were making their farewells to Zarvil, Giljir, Tekwe and Qoraq.

“You have saved us from two great dangers,” Zarvil was saying. “Are you sure you won’t stay longer? We could learn a lot from you.”

“It’s better if you learn it in your own way and in your own time,” the Doctor said. “In the meantime, Susan and I have the whole universe to explore. I may return one day, and see what sort of future you have made for yourselves – at the moment, I think it’s very bright. Now, we must be off. Come along, Susan.”

They entered the TARDIS and closed the doors. In a few moments, the wheezing sound began and the Dervans watched in astonishment as the TARDIS disappeared into the vortex.


End file.
